Analysts say it sounds like a move that will make customers aware of BlackBerry's App World

Last week, a four-day outage of BlackBerry services left millions of users with email, browsing and instant messaging troubles, but Research In Motion (RIM) is sending an apology in the form of free apps to make up for the disruption.

On October 10, BlackBerry customers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa began experiencing problems with their messaging, browsing and email services. RIM blamed the service troubles on an extremely critical network failure. On Tuesday, the outage spread to South America and Asia, and on Wednesday, the United States and Canada.

There are an estimated 70 million BlackBerry users worldwide.

RIM's BlackBerry service update confirmed that services began to operate normally on Thursday, October 13. RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis released an apology video on RIM's website saying that it is the company's goal to provide a reliable communications network, but "did not deliver on that goal this week." RIM Chief Information Officer Robin Bienfait offered an apology on the RIM website as well.

But RIM knew an apology probably wasn't going to fully compensate for the four days of unreliable service. Many use BlackBerry devices for work, and can't perform well when the device cannot perform well either.

Now, RIM announced this morning that it will provide a selection of premium apps for BlackBerry users to download for free starting Wednesday, October 19.

"Our global network supports the communications needs of more than 70 million customers," said Lazaridis. "We truly appreciate and value our relationship with our customers. We've worked hard to earn their trust over the past 12 years, and we're committed to providing the high standard of reliability they expect, today and in the future."

While the complete list of premium apps is currently not available, a few that made the list are "SIMS 3," "Bejeweled," "Texas Hold 'Em Poker 2," "Bubble Bash 2," "iSpeech Translator Pro," "Photo Editor Ultimate," "Drive Safe.ly Enterprise," "Shazam Encore," "N.O.V.A.," and "Nobex Radio Premium."

Some analysts wonder if the free apps will be enough of an apology, saying that RIM may have fixed the problem but the damage to its reputation is done. BlackBerry has had two other outages before, and customers are starting to see a pattern.

Others, however, see RIM's free premium app move as a wise decision that will make customers aware of BlackBerry's App World. This is especially helpful, considering developers were dropping support for RIM, making it "the biggest loser" in the mobile app race.

"For RIM, this is an interesting way to attract users to the App World and incentivize them to search and download apps," said Francisco Jeronimo, an analyst at IDC. "What RIM probably did was an agreement with developers and is not charging the percentage on revenues they keep when a user buys an app."

"Because I want you to tell me the story about how QNX will magically replace all the BB OS handsets in the world instantaneously the moment it is released."

Where did I say anything like that? That is all part of the argument in your head. Sorry about your popcorn, but that is the nutty side of your failing debate skills. I said its not relevant."Do you understand that there will be a few dozens of millions users with BB OS in the world for the next decade or so? Do you undertand that RIM will never replace BB OS with QNX completely in an instance? Do you understand that RIM will keep selling gazillions of cheap low end BB OS 7 handsets in the large developing countries like India, Brazil, Mexico, etc for years to come, in addition to high end QNX handsets? Do you understand that you can still make gazillions of money in supporting their needs and selling them apps for a few bucks each? Do you EVEN UNDERSTAND THAT WINDOWS XP SOFTWARE AND SUPPORT SERVICES MARKET IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL 10 YEARS AFTER XP WAS RELEASED?"

OK, ill bite, just to put you back on the wall. You have quite the rant, but none of it is relevant. Of course there are still milllions of users, and of course QNX will not repalce those phones. In spite of your irritating rant, I never said anything about that. The article talked about many mobile app developers not wanting to develop for RIM anymore. You saying there are millions of BB users doesnt change that. However many there are, developers are concentrating on IOS and Android and you know it . You can try to change the subject all you want, but you wont be able to make it untrue, and its really not the point is it?

Let me simplify so its easy for you to get and harder for you to misconstrue. -> OF course there is money to be made developing apps, no-one, I repeat NO-ONE said there wasnt. The implication is that IOS and Android get all the effort. BB OS is getting some, but its sort of like sloppy seconds. No-one said its going from 100% to zero percent. Its just trending downward and will continue to do so.

Now, stop changing the subject, creating arguments in your head, and talking about things that are A) irrelevant B) misconstrued and C) pointless because neither of us is changing our minds.

If you are so sure about RIM's prospects, take the bet. buk buk buk buk.

The bet: By October next year, there won’t be any way for RIM to hide behind creative data reporting and "pick and choose" facts. RIM’s numbers will be down all over, sales, marketshare, everything everywhere and it will be undeniable.

Haha, first you said you disagree with my points when I told you there's money to be made supporting BB OS, but now you're pretending you didn't say that. Try to wiggle and dance around some more, heheee, your post with your phrase "I disagree with your points" is still up there, people can see you're lying!

I said I disagree with your whole assertion that it matters. Clearly what everyone sees here is that you are afraid to stand behind the crap you post and take the bet. Whether I disagree to your points or not its not the issue... Clearly we disagree. Take the bet or shut up

Because I am the one that put out the bet and is willing to stand behind what I say. Its OK though. This conversation is done and your unwillingness to take the bet speaks volumes about you and the crap you spout on this forum. Thank you for making that clear to everyone though.

Bet? You think your chest thumping means anything? I don't care about your bet, I state my opinion and debunk a few lies in the process. You can bet all your life and what not on some shit, who cares... I don't for sure.

After I mentioned how biased the trolls are who turn "a company left BB OS development" into "DEVELOPERS LEAVE RIM IN DROVES AAAHHHH DIE DIE DIE!!!" - there's no need to bet on anything, understand?

LOL... Seeing that RIM in trouble is a being a Troll... Its not even being highly observant, its just called paying attention. Lies, Lies, Tiffany Lies!!! Look at your thread title you nutjob. Jason Lies, Spooty lies! Wall street lies, RIM's stockholders all lie, its a great lie conspiracy at the highest levels all designed to make RIM look bad!!! Where my foil hat? But Xbox sales, but Apple was once in trouble, but MS lost IE marketshare, but Google, but Palm, oh, wait, not Palm, but, but, but...

I see you don't like me criticizing the bias of some people here. Hopefully after today's BBX presentation in SF a lot of trolls will shut up at least for a little while. Even JM in his posting only fucked up the title, and the rest was kind of okay. Ubbelievable for an Android fanboy like him. Looks like BBX and other gooides like Playbook NDK impressed him enough and he became a little less biased this time, hehe :) So I even haven't criticized him a lot, just told him that he only fucked up the post title but otherwise it was a decent job.